الاثنين، 27 أكتوبر 2014

Useful Tips For Selecting The Best Wine Making Sanitizer

By Young Lindsay


Using contaminated equipment to make wine will result in the greatest disappointment of your life. The exercise should instead be a hobby that is meant to impress your friends and make you feel accomplished. This brings to fore the importance of choosing the right wine making sanitizer for your home winemaker.

The method used in cleaning does not matter as long as bacteria and foreign yeast are eliminated. These are the contaminants that are likely to affect the odor and taste of your drink. It is unthinkable to assume that you can use the same equipment for another round without cleaning. It also is necessary to differentiate between cleansers and sanitizers.

Thorough cleaning of the equipment is necessary before commencing with sanitizing. Cleaning aims at removing physical and visible contaminants. There are contaminants that cannot be eliminated in this way. Some are found in folds and others in cracks of the same equipment. It is the small and invisible particles that will spoil an entire barrel.

Stronger cleaning solutions like bleaches are difficult to rinse off the equipment. You will therefore require something specifically made to diffuse their effect without affecting the quality of wine being prepared. This is what sanitizers do. Depending on the quality of material you are using, there are different options in the market.

Sanitizing and sterilizing are different during winemaking processes. Sterilization is best done by applying heat. This is a very difficult process and at the same time unnecessary for home based winemakers. Neighborhood stores provide convenient options for use on different equipment.

Chlorine is a common sanitizer that is used after the equipment are cleaned. It is a tricky option because it reacts very fast with organic substances and in the process looses its sanitizing power. It is readily available and cheap to acquire. The equipment should be soaked for ten minutes before being drip dried to eliminate any residue.

Iodophor is a common sanitizing agent but comes with the disadvantage of staining anything it comes into contact with. It comes with instructions on how to dilute it when you need to sanitize. It indicates the right strength when it is faint brown. This means that any other coloration or the lack of it will mean that it has lost its strength.

Two other common sanitizers are sodium metabisulphite and potassium metabisulphite. They release sulfur dioxide when they come into contact with water. This is a powerful sanitizing agent that works as an antiseptic. It should be poured into the container and then left in air-tight condition.

It is important to ensure that the sanitizing solution has touched every corner of the equipment. This can be achieved by swirling around since use of hands is not advisable. Ensure that by the time you are completing this procedure, no odor or taste can be felt. This tells you that your equipment are ready for use.

Barrels use different substances and procedures considering their size and form. The tips given above are not exhaustive. They are constantly modified and updated depending on daily development. Whichever method you use, ensure that there is no strange taste or order before beginning to prepare your next round of wine.




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